Amy Adams, Doubt
It's rare that Oscar nominations go to all four leads in a movie — indeed, to virtually the only four actors who have speaking parts. (In the 1972 Sleuth, every actor who had even a line of dialogue was nominated, but the number of actors was different.) In John Patrick Shanley's did-he-do-it melodrama, where the question lingers long after the closing credits, the big mystery is how Adams got on this very distinguished list. As just about the only nun under 60 in a Bronx convent school in 1964, Adams has to play dewy and naive, and so wide-eyed it's as if she was given Murine drops before every shot. Doubt has good acting, great acting and bad acting; Adams is the only one of the quartet who provides acting that is by-the-book ordinary. (Odds of winning: 20 to 1)